Ron Everlasting
by Binkmeister
Summary: They had all eternity together. But is that long enough? Sequel to Kim Eternal, finished at long last.
1. Chapter 1

Twin shadows spread from Kim's feet as she sprinted toward the opposite end of Middleton High's outdoor basketball court, dribbling the ball between nimble hands. Her boyfriend coursed behind, guarding her from the other team's elbows and feet. There were just seconds left in the fourth quarter when Kim screeched to a halt outside the three-point line and hoisted a shot that plunked straight into the bucket.

Bzzzt. "Red team wins!" The PE teacher wandered off, bored at the predictable outcome.

Monique and Felix jumped up to high-five Kim, and Ron gave her a quick, sweaty hug. The other team wandered off the court, grumbling about how unfair it all was. "What's this, like the millionth time they've wiped us? Why do we keep getting the same teams?"

"Dude, you need some cheese with that whine!" Ron called after the losing team, skipping on ever-klutzy feet to catch up with his redheaded girlfriend. "Naco break?" he smiled hopefully. Nearly horizontal red light streamed through the trees, and brighter light from above made dusky maroon shadows on the asphalt.

Kim smiled back, always intrigued at the open affection on Ron's face. "Sure," she replied. "After showers. I stink."

Ron started toward the boys' locker room. "I dunno," he called, "I thought that last shot was pretty good." A well-timed hair scrunchy, flung like a rubber band, just missed his left ear. Ron grinned and winked.

Cool air from the locker rooms enveloped the two as they entered separate locker rooms. Shadows disappeared as the high schoolers got ready for another Friday evening.

Ron emerged first and sat on a school bench, waiting for his friends. A red sunset spread out over Middleton. Three pale discs hung in the sky, nearly drowned by the brighter light of a second sun. Ron sighed. Just another Friday. Didn't anything _unusual_ ever happen anymore?

* * *

Author's note: This is a sequel to the story **Kim Eternal**


	2. Chapter 2

"No, seriously - I could have _died_!" Monique finished as she took a bite of her veggie burrito. "I mean, could you have pictured me in green and black?" Her friends, gathered around the table at Bueno Nacho, laughed appreciatively. Monique's fashion sense was legendary.

The little fast food restaurant was nearly empty, save for a couple of booths overflowing with teenagers. A bored assistant manager moved grease from one part of the counter to another with a rag. Outside the tall windows, night was finally upon the town, where second sunset had just begun to reveal stars and moons in the navy-blue sky. A few cars honked at a dog wandering across the road, but otherwise Middleton was quiet.

This was Ron's favorite time. He usually stayed out way too late, and ended up oversleeping long into the daylight hours. Which, admittedly, wasn't hard with an average of four hours of darkness each night.

Rufus polished off the remnants of Ron's naco, burped, and sat up expectantly, beady eyes boring into Ron. The sandy-haired teen looked at his pet and smiled. Somehow, he always expected Rufus to start talking, but that was crazy... without looking back, Ron called, "Ned, mi amigo, another naco for my pal, por favor!"

The assistant manager looked up and stopped his grease migration for a moment. "Who's Ned?"

Ron turned, looked at the familiar face behind the counter, and frowned. "Um, never mind." Why did he call the guy Ned? Jake had always been the assistant manager, hadn't he?

Kim looked at her boyfriend with a concerned frown. "You OK, Ron? That's the third time this week you've done that. You feeling all right?" She gently brushed a wayward lock of hair from Ron's eyes.

"Um, fine, no problems with the Ronster," he said with gusto. But Kim knew him well enough to tell when he hid behind a façade. She let it go when he obviously didn't want to talk about it. Keeping an eye on him, Kim turned back to the conversation with Felix, Monique, Wade, and Justine. Wade was starting in on another mission story.

"While Shego was fighting Kim, Monkeyfist activated this device he'd had made that created a monkey-shaped cloud that rained bananas... it was obviously created with subharmonic transmitters and reconstituted fruit. I don't know what he thought he was going to do, but you should've seen everybody slipping on banana peels! They had to close Middleton Mall for two days to clean it all up, and it still smells like a banana daquiri on the second floor!" Ron forced himself to laugh at the oft-remembered encounter. He still had a hard time walking into Club Banana after _that_ particular mission, even after all this time.

Ron tried to remember how long ago that had been. It was a while, he was sure, but try as he might, he couldn't associate it with any other event and couldn't even recall the last time he'd encountered Monkeyfist. "Kimbo, how long ago was that, anyway?" he asked as the chuckling died down.

Kim shrugged. "I don't know, a while, I guess. Why?"

"It's just that I can't remember the last time we went on a mission."

Looking thoughtful, Kim slowly replied, "Yeah, our last mission was a while ago. It's been pretty quiet lately. Lucky us." But she quickly perked up and began chatting with Felix about something else.

Ron hated the thought that something weird was going on in his head. Why couldn't he remember? All he could recall was the daily routine of going to school, doing homework, community work around town, hanging with Kim and his friends, household chores, and other teenager stuff. The more he thought about it, the more it all blurred together. It was frustrating. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd been outside Middleton's city limits!

It was a warm night. "Hey, Kim, want to go for a walk by moonlight? Looks like a nice evening." He wanted to see something new for a change, maybe get a couple of miles outside of town.

Kim smiled, assuming he had male ulterior motives. "Why Mr. Stoppable, how forward of you," she replied. "Let's hope my father doesn't hear about this."

Ron stared at the deepening twilight and replied absently, "He can come too, that's fine..." He caught his girlfriend's arched eyebrows and realized how his invitation looked to her. "I mean, I'll be gentlemanly," he stammered. The others laughed, not unkindly, at Ron's discomfiture. He squirmed in his seat.

Extending her hand, Kim let Ron stand and help her up, and the two made their goodbyes to their friends. Hand in hand, they walked into the warm spring night and headed toward the outskirts of Middleton. "Where to?" Kim asked.

Ron shrugged and pointed with a nod of his chin to the nearby foothills just outside of town. "How about thataway?" Kim smiled and snuggled nearer.

"This is nice."

Ron had to agree. There was nothing better than having KP's attention all to himself. He woke up anticipating that feeling, and it was the last thing he thought of before falling asleep. He couldn't remember when he hadn't felt that way. Tonight, it was especially vivid to Ron, with her hand warm in his, the soft night breeze laden with a hint of acacia, the subdued lights of the town falling behind, the four crescent moons above... Ron noticed another had risen, and judging by its brightness and size of the disc, it was probably Europa, but he wasn't sure. He'd never done well in astronomy class.

Despite their intent to stroll casually, both found themselves picking up the pace. Ron wanted to see beyond the town borders, and he knew that Kim rarely did anything at half speed. In a short time the two had left the town behind and were following a gravel road up into the hills, then onto grass. They soon had a panoramic view of the little town's lights. Kim guided her boyfriend under a tall oak tree, pulled him to the ground, and sat on his lap.

"So. Now what should we do to occupy ourselves?" Kim asked. Her fingers tickled the back of his neck. "Any ideas, bright boy?"

Normally such an invitation would've burrowed straight past Ron's conscious thought processes and into his lizard brain, the one that said, "Kiss the girl." But to his surprise, Ron found himself remaining preoccupied with his faulty memory.

"Uh, yeah, KP, I was kinda hoping to..." He stopped at the puzzled look on Kim's face. "Look, there's something tickling the back of my brain and I need to put my finger on it." Seeing stormclouds start to pass behind Kim's green eyes, he continued quickly, "Not that I don't want to tongue wrestle, but I was kinda hoping to shake something loose in my head." At least that got a smile. "What isn't already loose, that is." He grinned back.

Kim leaned back and eyed her boyfriend in the dim moonslight. "All right, fine. Anything I can help with?" She wiggled a little.

"That's not helping!"

Sighing, the redhead climbed off her boyfriend's lap. "Well, now what?"

"I guess I just need some time to think."

Kim squatted next to Ron, kissed him gently on the nose. "Can do. Let me know if you need any help from me. You know I'm always here for you." She stood. "But don't take too long. I can't wait forever to kiss you, ya know."

Ron nodded and watched her turn and jog easily down the gentle, grassy slope. She was always there for him, he knew that. But somehow he also knew they weren't always together, even though they wanted to be... something had kept them apart for a time. A long time. But like quicksilver, the memories slipped away before they solidified.

He watched the lights twinkle out below, little by little, until only streetlights and a few night owls remained. Ron's eye found Middleton's only freeway, and traced the curved line of highway lights to the hills off to his right. He expected to see them continue over the hills and beyond, but they began petering out not far past where he sat, until the distance was locked in darkness.

That's strange.

Standing, Ron quickly descended to the gravel road and cut across to the deserted highway. No cars screamed by, and Ron began following the roadside. He knew this road led to Upperton, although he hadn't been there in... a while. Again, he couldn't pin down the last time he'd visited that town, and that annoyed him enough to pick up the pace. Half an hour's walking in the light of the moons brought him out of sight of Middleton, and he noticed something disturbing.

The asphalt began looking cracked, and the farther he walked, the less repaired it seemed. The lights were also working only intermittently, until Ron walked past the last working light pole. Weeds and small plants grew in large cracks in the road. Walking some more, Ron's eyes became used to the dim glow of the moons and he saw that up ahead the asphalt cracked and eventually became submerged in the countryside.

There was no sign of Upperton.

Worried, Ron turned around and walked back to Middleton. He stopped on the low bridge over Middle Creek, and looked down. Now _this_ he remembered... jumping down to the shallow bank, Ron walked to a bend and stood looking at several trees that had been uprooted during a flash flood several years before. Walking slowly around the largest tree, which had begun decaying, his fingers found a heart shape and some words carved in the trunk, well up from the tangled roots.

Frowning, Ron continued to walk upstream until he reached a small concrete pad and door set next to the river. The door was made of silvery metal and had no keyhole or handle. But he knew it was a door. He also knew how to open it.

But he didn't know how he knew, and that worried him.

Slowly, Ron raised both hands and pressed one on each side of the narrow door, about three fourths of the way up. The door noiselessly slid back and to the side, a puff of stale air emerging. Dim lighting strips illuminated the walls, but they seemed bright after Ron's walk in the dim moonslight. It was very familiar, but Ron couldn't place why. He didn't associate it with any danger.

Knowing it was reckless, Ron walked past the door, which slid shut without a sound behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

Kim's alarm clock beeped insistently. Dragging herself from sleep, Kim draped an arm over the snooze button and shut it off, bringing back merciful silence. Peeking out from under her disheveled hair, Kim saw it was already 9:30 a.m. Good thing it was a Saturday.

A few minutes later, showered and dressed and at least semi-conscious, Kim descended to the kitchen where her mother was making pancakes. The thick maple smell brought her wide awake, and as with all food, she was immediately reminded of Ron.

Better call him after breakfast.

The tweebs rolled in, bringing their own portable chaos with them, as always. "Hey!" she called, brushing drops of syrup off her arm. "Take it into the living room. Or the next county, maybe." She watched with narrowed eyes as the twin terrors inhaled a stack of pancakes and fled with as much sound and fury as they'd entered with.

Rolling her eyes, Kim finished her own short stack and helped clear the table. As they put dishes into the washer, her mother asked, "I didn't see Ron drop you off last night like usual, wasn't he with you and the rest of your friends?"

"Sort of. He and I went for a moonlight stroll, but he wanted to do some thinking. Alone. So I came back early." Kim tried to keep the worry out of her voice, but her mother was perceptive.

"Is he OK?"

Kim sighed. "I think so. He's just been kind of strange the last week or so, like he thinks something's wrong with him. I keep catching him looking around like there's something weird happening, but it's all the same, there's nothing different or strange that I can tell." She leaned back on the counter, letting the light from both suns warm her bare shoulders. "I just hope he straightens himself out pretty soon."

Her mother put a comforting hand on her daughter's arm. "I'm sure he'll be just fine. Ron's a solid person." Kim smiled and squeezed her mom's hand.

Outside, a sputtering motor grew louder and then stopped suddenly. "Speak of the devil," Kim said, heading for the front door. Nothing else in Middleton sounded like Ron's scooter.

Ron hopped off the scooter just as Kim opened the door. Taking his helmet off, he bounded up the driveway to where Kim stood barefoot. She was concerned to see his face - his eyes were bloodshot, his hair more tousled than usual, and he looked like he hadn't slept last night. "KP!" he called. "Get your shoes, you've gotta see something. C'mon!"

Kim backed up to let him bounce inside, and turned to get her socks and shoes. "What is it, trouble?" She reached for her mission backpack, and noticed how dusty it had become in the back of the closet. It really had been a long time since their last mission.

"Not in so many words... not per se, trouble, I wouldn't say trouble, but maybe something that should concern you," he breathed, still catching his breath. "Do I smell maple syrup?"

Apparently whatever was motivating Ron wasn't urgent enough to bypass some of Mama Possible's Famous Homemade Pancakes. Kim watched Ron wolf down a huge stack of freshly-made pancakes, while Rufus nibbled his own small plate of silver-dollar sized hotcakes. Once full, though, Ron jumped up, dumped his dishes in the sink, grabbed Rufus and Kim's hand and hurried to the door. "Time's a-wasting!" he said, plunking the helmet back on his unruly hair. Kim followed suit, amused and concerned at the same time. Anything that boosted Ron out of post-meal relaxation was serious.

They were soon on the outskirts of town, taking a side street that paralleled the highway Ron had taken the previous night. "Why are we headed to Upperton?" Kim asked, puzzled. Anything really dire would've come over the Kimmunicator.

"You'll see," her boyfriend called over his shoulder as they sped down the blacktop at a blazing 25 miles an hour.

Ron stopped and did an illegal left turn onto an empty freeway entrance. Kim became immediately concerned. The scooter wasn't licensed or fast enough for freeways! What was Ron thinking? "Hey! We can't go there on this!" Ron paid no attention, and guided them onto the empty freeway. He stayed on the shoulder, however.

In a couple of minutes they reached the bridge over Middle Creek. Ron stopped the scooter and they piled off, shedding helmets. Kim rounded on her boyfriend. "What were you thinking getting on the freeway with this thing? We could've been killed! Or worse, you could've gotten a ticket!"

Ron patted the air, trying to calm her. "No worries, KP. Look around - is this the bustling metropolis you remember?" Blacktop stretched in front and behind them, remarkably vehicle-free. "Nobody leaves Middleton anymore."

Before she could fire off another indignant objection, Ron grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the railing. Below, two sets of tracks were visible in the soft wet clay bordering the creek. One set led upstream, another came back, and both were apparently made by the same person. Judging by Ron's muddy shoes, he had been that person. Without waiting at the rail, he hopped the low fence and landed back down by the creek. Looking up, he held up his arms. "C'mon. You've **got** to see this."

Hesitantly, Kim lowered herself down... not scared of what she might see, but worried that Ron may really have sprung a leak in his brainpan. After all, it wasn't as if this place were dangerous, it was just the old creek where she and Ron used to go to find some privacy. Kim hadn't thought about that in a while, but it was all familiar and decidedly unthreatening. Hand in hand, the two began following the creek.

Once tree limbs became visible around a bend, Ron hurried them forward and stood next to the largest downed tree, even on its side taller than either Kim or Ron. He pointed up to what was inscribed in the bark. "Bring back any memories, KP?" he asked eagerly.

It did. The heart shape was outlined with "Kim + Ron 4-ever" that had been gouged into the bark. Kim remembered helping Ron sign the tree, and remembered feeling guilty about defacing a part of nature. "Sure, I remember. What's the big?"

Ron lifted an eyebrow. "How big was the tree when we did this?"

Puzzled, Kim thought for a moment, then held her hands out to form a circle about a foot in diameter. "I don't know, maybe this big around?" She shrugged. "So?"

Ron was clearly becoming impatient. "So how long does it take a tree to go from this big," he pointed to Kim's cupped hands, "to this big?" He pointed to the tree trunk that was a good eight feet thick. "And just how long ago did we perform our little arboreal grafitti?" Kim was willing to bet he'd looked that phrase up somewhere.

Now Kim was puzzled and intrigued. It certainly didn't seem that long ago, not at all. But the inscription was definitely made by her hand. And Ron's hand, of course. The tree was huge, clearly much more than a century old. It didn't make sense.

"OK, that's hinky, I grant you," Kim said slowly, watching a satisfied grin play across Ron's face. "Is this what you dragged me out here to see?"

Ron grabbed her hand and began walking upstream again. "Partly. But the best part is up here. Remember when we used to come down here?"

Blushing, Kim remembered. But there were more convenient spots to smooch, closer to town.

"And you remember why we came here, right?" Ron asked.

Kim laughed. "Yeah, Bonnie would always spy on us and laugh when we got affectionate. It got real old real fast."

"Bonnie who?"

"Rockwaller. My high school nemesis. Doy." Kim gave Ron a funny look. What was he getting at?

Ron stopped and looked at Kim, all humor gone from his face. "We're in high school, right?" Kim nodded, and Ron continued, "And where's Bonnie now?"

Kim sobered too. "She's dead, of course. That's not a nice thing to bring up."

Not backing down, Ron asked one more question that stopped Kim cold. "What did she die of?"

The answer didn't fit, not at all. But it was the only one she had. "Extreme old age," she whispered. The pieces didn't want to come together in Kim's head.

Grimly satisfied, Ron led her further upstream. They soon splashed through the creek to the concrete pad Ron had run across last night. Before he let her see it, Ron covered his girlfriend's eyes and carefully walked her to just in front of the door. "Tell me what this is," he said, dropping his hands.

"That's easy. It's our mission memorabilia bunker." The words came out before Kim had time to even think. But once uttered, her eyes grew wide. "Now that is just **too** weird. How did I know that? Why would I have forgotten?" Kim looked at the flat metal door. She couldn't remember for the life of her what was on the other side. But she knew that she used to know. She knew she had built it.

Ron put his hands up, touched the opening spots on either side of the doorway. The noiseless door receeded, and dim lights barely visible in the light of double suns led deep down into the hillside. Ron gestured. "I came here last night. It's time to see some things that we haven't seen for a long, long time. And I think it's time we started remembering things."

Kim stood rooted. "Some kind of chemical memory weapon that may have been used on us, or something?"

"I dunno, Kim. But I feel like I'm starting to wake up. I don't know the answers yet, but at least I'm seeing that there are questions that need asking."

A small splashing behind them surprised both of them. They twirled around quickly to see a newcomer who had apparently just come out of nowhere.

"Well it's about _time_," Bonnie Rockwaller said.


	4. Chapter 4

Ron was the first to retrieve his jaw from the ground. "Captain, we've just passed Weird Factor 12," he murmured. Next to him, red hair nodded in agreement.

Dressed in the normal trashy school outfit Kim recalled so well, Bonnie splashed through the shallow creek toward them until she was only a few feet away from the stunned pair. Bonnie smirked, reached out a manicured finger, and gently lifted Kim's jaw until her mouth closed with a click.

"Where did you... how are you..." Kim's brain, already stunned by the contradictions Ron had forced her to acknowledge, was stuck in first gear. Coherent sentences seemed like far too much effort. "How? Why?"

"Oh, that's not what's gonna fry your noggin. I'm the least of your issues right now, Kim." Bonnie imperiously strode past the pair and plopped onto the cement pad, back to the now-open door. "Besides, I'm not really the Bonnie you knew. There are a lot of things going on, and you're right on the verge of diving face-first into a giant puddle of confusion. I don't need your synapses to seize up, you might as well ask your stupid questions now so we can get to the important stuff."

Ron found his voice. "You're not Bonnie?"

The newcomer rolled her eyes. "Here we go. Listen to what I said: I'm not the Bonnie _that you knew_. That doesn't mean I'm not Bonnie. Sheez. Next dumb question."

"She's Bonnie enough for me," Kim muttered. Then, in a louder voice, "Aren't you dead, then?" That idea still conflicted with the Bonnie she went to high school with. The Bonnie that sat across from her, feet dangling in the gently flowing water.

"Yes. Gonna make it a perfect triple?"

"Why are you here?" Ron managed.

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Three perfectly stupid questions in a row." She stood abruptly. "Before we talk about me, I'm going to say something I hate saying: let's talk about you first.

"I'm going to say something and you're going to say the first thing that enters your mind. And don't make me time you with an hourglass - I mean the _very first_ thing. July 20, 1969."

Kim answered immediately: "First moon landing."

"Out of how many moons does Earth have?"

Ron's turn. "One, of course."

Smirking that special grin, Bonnie pointed up to the morning sky, where two small whitish crescents floated, and another large crescent moon hung near the horizon. "One little two little three little moonsies," Bonnie singsonged. "What year is it?"

"2010," Kim and Ron answered simultaneously, thoroughly discomfitted.

"Uh huh," Bonnie said without explanation, to the annoyance of the others. "When was the first time you two... _did_ it?"

Ron opened his mouth and gaped, doing a passable guppy imitation. Kim turned nearly as red as her hair. "We... we're waiting until we're more mature," Kim finally stuttered.

To their amazement, Bonnie started howling with laughter, gales of amusement rolling through the little creek valley. Startled birds flew away in droves as Bonnie bent double, caught in a huge belly laugh, until she tipped over backwards into the creek, still howling. "Oh, that's perfect. I had no idea you'd gotten so puritanical." She wiped her eyes and stood up dripping. "Oh, I needed that. Thanks."

Now more angry than confused, Ron rounded on the chuckling Bonnie. "Excuse me, miss know-it-all, but who died and made you queen of everything? What are you trying to say?" This set Bonnie off on another gut-buster of a laugh.

Finally, her glee subsided and she faced the irate pair. "You have no idea. Oh, this is so perfect. I so wish I had a recorder right now, I'd be famous." She looked at Kim, then Ron, and finally decided to explain a little bit. "In the whole history of humankind, there are those stories that get made into huge cultural icons. You know, like that Helen of Troy woman who was almost as beautiful as me, and Beowulf, and aliens abducted my cousin and probed his bits type of thing. Stories like that. But the most famous love story ever was how this one chick traveled back in time to supposedly rescue the human race but it was really all just a plot to get her geeky loser boyfriend back from another planet, and they finally got together and lived happily ever after except they couldn't have children because they were sterile immortals. Even though they were remembered as lust monkeys."

Two jaws dropped. Both were sure they'd never heard that story, but it was so familiar somehow...

"Anyway." Bonnie stood and twirled, and when she faced the other two she was completely dry. "I've had my giggles. Time for the serious soul-probing to get underway." She strode toward the dark entrance. "Let's go, kids." Bonnie descended into the gloom.

With a wordless glance, Kim and Ron followed and the door silently slid into place, leaving the creek to chuckle to itself.

* * *

Ron's eyes adjusted quickly to the dim light coming from the ceiling. Shelves lined the narrow concrete hallway,crammed floor to ceiling with _stuff_, dusty and long unused. Some of it was recognizable, like a spacesuit (but of a much sleeker design than Ron remembered ever seeing) and a handheld computer, but other things were completely alien to his eyes. Their feet kicked up dust, and they went past spiderwebs broken only the night before by Ron's solo inspection. Bonnie trotted ahead as if she knew what everything was, and was bored by it. Kim and Ron lingered over this and that, whispering guesses at what a particular item might be, until Bonnie cleared her throat irritably.

The long, sloping corridor ended in a circular room where larger objects were placed around the periphery. A full knight in shining armor stood just opposite the corridor, flanked by a floating 12-foot-tall metallic teardrop and, for some reason, a blue British police telephone booth. Other less identifiable things were scattered haphazardly around the large, high-ceilinged room.

It was all strange to Ron, but he somehow knew that behind the phone booth was another corridor. Kim seemed to know it also, and both peeked at the darkness behind the call box. Ron decided it was like being on a movie set of a book he'd read years before.

Ron kept his voice low in the gloom. "Who owns this stuff, anyway?"

Bonnie twirled and smiled a condescending grin. "Finally, a halfway intelligent question." She pointed at Kim, then Ron. "You do. You collected it all."

Kim ran a finger over a globe that was covered with a thick layer of dust. "This stuff is ancient. How could we have collected it? We're just high schoolers."

Another chuckle from Bonnie. "Sure. And just how long have you been seniors?" Neither had an answer. Their assumptions had been shaken too deeply to give any easy answers. Kim now knew what Ron was concerned about - that what they knew wasn't real, somehow. Or it wasn't everything.

Somebody had messed with their minds.

Bonnie saw the clench of Kim's jaw and grinned again. "You're starting to get it, huh? That the little life you've been leading isn't what you thought it was. Sure, you're a senior... just like you were last year. And the year before that. And the decade before that. But you haven't always been a senior. I bet if you try hard, you can remember things..." She brushed some dust off a flat tablet and handed it to Ron, who took it gingerly.

"Hey! My autoscribe! I used to use this!" Ron enthused, shaking dust off the object. It remained inert, power long drained. But Ron continued running his hand over the flat device. "This was sure handy on the ol' Magellan voyages," he said softly.

Kim threw him a look. "Magellan voyages?"

"Yeah, all those years between the stars, just the few dozen of us on the ship... good times, good times," Ron muttered, completely absorbed in the little tablet, until his head drifted up. "What was I saying?"

Kim started seriously wondering about Ron's mental state, and was about to try to snap him out of it when she saw a small five-pointed metallic star sitting on top of what looked like a filing cabinet without drawers. Mesmerized, she picked up the blunt star and turned it over, shaking off dust. Touching each of the ends in turn almost hypnotically, she held it in her palm and watched a blue light coalesce into a starfield in the air above her hand. "My star charts," she whispered. "I know this thing. I used to spend hours with it, mapping stars and planets." She paused. "Centuries with it." Her hand dropped and the light winked out.

She fixed Bonnie with a thousand-watt glare. "We're immortal!"

Golf clap.

Kim continued, "We spent centuries, lifetimes, going places and doing things." Bonnie nodded. "Ron and I, together." Thumbs up this time. "And then we... we come back home and forget it all? I don't buy it. Somebody did something to our memories! Somebody messed with us! Somebody made us think we're back at the beginning, back in Middleton!" Kim continued working herself into a fury, and Ron began clouding up as well. Both rounded on Bonnie.

"You know who did this! Tell us!"

Bonnie's face had an incongruous grin in the face of Kim and Ron's combined ire. "Ooh, you're gonna love the next part. I know I will." She held out her hand, and for the first time she touched Ron's and Kim's fingers. A small electric-like shock went through both, coursed up both Kim's and Ron's arms and behind their eyes. Slightly painful, it was like a numb limb waking up again. Senses the pair had forgotten they had sizzled awake; when Ron blinked, it felt as if he had two sets of eyes, one set looking out, another looking in.

Slowly, with awareness expanding like the petals of a blooming flower, sophisticated wetware installed in both Kim and Ron's bodies shook itself awake for the first time in millennia, and the pair saw their long, long lives unfold. Dementor's anagathic spray, the near-collapse of human civilization that followed, centuries of reconstruction, millennia of healing the earth, the desperate gamble to whisk Kim back in time, her home-built starship that brought long-lost Ron back from his far-off exile... it all flowed back into their minds, the unseen wall keeping it from their conscious minds breached in a billion places. They stood for minutes, absorbing it all, and reviewing the much longer span that followed.

The original Bonnie, awakened with Brick after five hundred centuries to repopulate earth; her brood of offspring that expanded to fill the planet, the solar system, the galaxy; the long years spent by the older, sterile humans as they watched short-lived children of Bonnie create new civilizations and races, make new discoveries, conquer new worlds and ways of thinking. Kim and Ron and the rest of the ancient immortals nurtured and were in turn honored and protected by the younger, far more powerful and fearfully intelligent descendents of Bonnie, who continued to grow and evolve with each generation.

There was more, much more. The long, lonely years after mortal humankind, whose lives were lengthened by science and what seemed like magic, discovered and achieved what they considered the next step in evolution, leaving their living ancestors to watch a suddenly empty galaxy.

Loneliness of a few hundred thousand childless humans, who eventually migrated back to their ancient home world to live day after day, with no hope of following the younger mortals to wherever they had gone. They felt gnawing futility at mere existence, futility enough to spur the effort of bringing a new dawn of humanity to life through gene banks left from earlier efforts. The joy of raising yet another new culture, guiding young mortals through life, helping them fulfill whatever destiny they sought. Until they too eventually migrated to another type of existence out of view of their elders.

Three times was the human race reborn. Three times they chose evolution, to leave the unbelievably ancient immortals to their own devices. After the third cycle, the elders were unanimous.

No more.

What handful of humans remained retreated to their nursery, the original solar system, whose sun had swollen through time and mortal interference to become a red giant. Earth was moved to a new orbit around the largest planet, which was imploded into a small white star to keep the planet warm and bright. The final handful of humanity retreated to their re-creation of the dawn of time, to the Middleton that was still fresh in many of their memories; unchanging bodies and unchanging minds still favored surroundings familiar when originally exposed to the immortality spray of Professor Dementor.

Long centuries and millennia dulled the huge interval between their early mortal lives and their present. Through mutual consent, days flowed one into the other, weeks, years, eons flowed past, and the past was no more than yesterday for most of those left. Unbelievably long lives were filtered, filed, forgotten, and life continued in an easy, day-to-day daze. The last five thousand immortal humans gathered in a small town and went no further, content to avoid the pain of their forgotten past.

Slack-jawed and vacant eyed, Kim and Ron stood for long minutes, absorbing the immensity of their past fed into their eyes and minds by long-dormant wetware, reviewing their self-imposed exile from the truth. Bonnie, impatient, finally went up and snapped her fingers under Kim's and Ron's noses. "Chop chop! No navel gazing, you'll have time to dive into your own little pity party later. But now I need your eyes on me. Helllooooo!"

"Whoa."

"Whoa times a google," Ron replied to Kim.

Bonnie planted herself in front of the pair and grinned. "Gosh, that was fun, wasn't it? Finding out how much you've been lying to yourselves? What better time could you ask for?"

The snarky tone brought Ron and Kim back to the present. Ron narrowed his eyes. "So what's your angle? The original Bonnie died a long time ago after re-starting the human race. You can't be her... unless you travelled in time...?"

"Wrongo, loser. Read my lips: I'm not that Bonnie. That Bonnie lived a long and fruitful life, was revered and documented by her many descendents, and is dust. But there was enough collected about her, and enough genes left through her descendents that had her original matriarchal genome, that anyone with sufficiently advanced technology and need could reconstitute her. So voila, here I am."

"'Sufficiently advanced technology'?" Kim asked.

"See, she gets it," Bonnie told Ron. "Yep. As they say, the prodigal daughter has returned. Immortal humanity certainly doesn't have the smarts to make someone as perfect as me, so who's left?"

Bonnie looked straight at Kim. "Hi mom, I'm home."

* * *

Five minutes later Ron's voice was hoarse from shouting, and Kim's was starting to fail as well. Bonnie had no problems making herself heard above the ruckus.

"Yes, I'm one of the descendents of humans. Or at least a creation of human descendents. They didn't just disappear, you know."

"But how?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I used baby talk. But does anybody know what Clarke's Law is?" Bonnie's air of superiority was unmatched.

Kim thought for a moment, then said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology would appear to be magic?"

"Close enough. Just think of me as a magical being, and you'll be fine."

Ron mumbled, "Yeah, but does she melt under a bucket of water? Or do I need a golden bullet to kill her?"

"Don't get tetchy, Stoppable. Believe it or not, I'm here to help you, even if you don't think you need it. I mean, look at you... you could barely remember your own names. Pathetic. It stands to reason that any of **my** descendents would be superior beings."

Kim moaned. Great. Bonnie's superiority complex now had something behind it. Wonderful.

The dusty surroundings took on a new meaning for Ron and Kim as they looked around. Each object now fit into some definable niche, some special memory, although sometimes the memory had to be tickled by wetware before it was apparent. This place was _old_.

Bonnie noticed them looking around at physical memories of their past. "Like any of this junk matters. Leave it to ancient immortals to sentimentally cling to a rotting past. You'll never find us new-and-improved human types doing that."

Although he hated to agree with Bonnie, Ron felt the dust cloying his throat. "Let's get some air," he said, and took Kim's hand before leading her back up the corridor. Bonnie tagged along behind, running a finger along dusty shelves and tsk'ing every few steps in disapproval. The morning air was a nice change from the dark gloom below, and both Kim and Ron felt their spirits lift.

"Now you're going to get to the _why you're here_ part," Kim told Bonnie.

Bonnie perched on a rock and looked at Kim, who had instinctively nestled into Ron's embrace. "Lovebirds," she mocked. "OK, fine. My turn. See, we - and by _we_ I mean the descendents of mortality, the three waves of evolved humans that went... somewhere else - we've been working on a project, but it turns out we need a little something from some ancestors. So we've been watching to see if anybody comes out of their navel-staring trance, which Stoppable here finally did. And it took you long enough, sheez."

Ron laughed. "Lemme get this right - you, all powerful lords of existence, the all mighty Sons and Daughters of Bonnie - you need **our** help for something? Hoo hoo, the shoe's on the other foot now, isn't it?"

Bonnie looked uncharacteristically embarrased. "Yes. We need three of you to help out. There isn't a lot of time.

"We're going on a little field trip."


	5. Chapter 5

Bonnie stepped daintily alongside the creek, leading Kim and Ron back to the crumbling freeway overpass where Ron's scooter wa

Bonnie stepped daintily alongside the creek, leading Kim and Ron back to the crumbling freeway overpass where Ron's scooter waited. Ron and Kim, hand in hand, followed more sedately, their newly-awakened eyes seeing the world in a far different perspective. They spoke little, preferring to exchange short bursts of feeling and thought through their joined hands and wetware. Both ancient teens found it surprisingly easy to remember how to use their long dormant enhancements. Everything was the same, but different, seen through the patina of age.

The pair looked above at the many moons of a now-blazing Jupiter, and marvelled at what their race had achieved, what they themselves had helped accomplish. Moving planets!

Looking back every few dozen steps, Bonnie snickered at the little smiles and coy looks the other two exchanged.

At the foot of the overpass, Bonnie twirled and imperiously put her hands on her hips. "There is NO WAY I'm getting on that scooter, and even less chance I'd ever put my arms around Stoppable. So you two lovebirds go on ahead. I'll meet you at the park. We still have a lot of stuff to do before we leave, and time is short."

Lowering her head, she added, "And I suggest you don't tell anybody what you've remembered, at least not yet. Unless you want a short trip to a place with long, wraparound sleeves." With that, Bonnie flounced into the deep shadows underneath the overpass. Kim and Ron watched for several seconds, but Bonnie never came out the other side.

"Now that's just creepy."

Kim smiled. "Bonnie showing up, or Bonnie disappearing?"

Ron climbed over the rail to the cracked asphalt. "Yes."

The redhead nodded and followed. Soon the pair were back on Ron's scooter, hurtling toward civilization at a breakneck 25 mph. The town was alive and vibrant, nice spring weather drawing even the most agoraphobic outdoors. Ron couldn't help but think of how he and Kim would tell everyone they'd been sleepwalking for centuries, millenia. A public announcement? Nah, too much airborne rotten fruit. Talking to the Middleton Post?

They'd be laughed out of the newspaper office. One on one? Take too long. Not that they had anywhere they needed to be, Ron mused.

During the short ride, Ron noticed little signs of how Middleton was changed from its earlier incarnation, signs that he (and everyone else) ignored during their willing self-delusion. If the population of Middleton didn't find a multitude of crescent moons and two suns strange, they certainly wouldn't notice the odd bioengineered foodplant here or there, Ron figured. Nor would they notice anachronistic touches like holographic computer displays, gas-free cars, or electricity that seemingly came from nowhere. Ron now knew these were all technological leftovers from before the last humans on earth turned their back on a long and lonely past. Even as Ron motored by, he saw an older gentleman absentmindedly sweep a handful of berries off a foodplant and toss them in his mouth as he ambled down the sidewalk.

There were no children.

They stopped off at Ron's empty house first so he could get a quick shower. His parents were out on errands. A night in the woods and scary room filled with futuristic antiques produced a certain funkiness that he wanted to scrape off. Kim followed, not minding Ron's funk. In fact, she had an idea...

By the time the two showed up at the park, freshly scrubbed, it was less than an hour since they'd left Bonnie. But the brunette girl was impatiently tapping a foot, acting as though they'd stood her up. Arms tightly crossed, Bonnie waited under a large oak. Her sharp almond eyes flicked first at Ron's clean mission clothes, then Kim's freshly-washed hair. She snorted. "Lovebirds." Pushing away from the bark, Bonnie stomped over to the two as they slowly approached. "Let's go."

Kim held up a gloved hand. "Just a second." Her green eyes blazed with an energy she'd nearly forgotten she had. "Enough mystical mumbo-jumbo. If you want us to help, we're willing, but you need to lay it out for us."

Ron nodded, arms crossed. "Start with the basics: who, what, where, when, why."

"Like we have TIME for this!" Bonnie whined. "Fine, you get the short version, but then I expect you to get it in gear.

"Who: Your descendants - well, mine, actually - require the help of three people. Three of you immortal people, to be specific. And since beggars can't be choosers, I've got you two. We'll need to find somebody else to round out the group before we go, that's our next stop.

"What: You'll get more details once we get where we're going, but let's just say it won't strain you. All you have to do is listen to a few people talk, and then tell everybody what you think. Even Stoppable should be able to listen for an hour.

"Where: That's... complicated. Alice in Wonderland had the right idea, though.

"When: As soon as you two can get get your butts in gear and your hands off each other. And we find a third.

"Why: There are two answers to that one, a long one and a longer one. So we'll stick with, 'Because Bonnie said.' Since we've already covered the stupid questions, it's time to get a move on." Clearly impatient, Bonnie started walking down the sidewalk.

Kim and Ron exchanged amused glances and started following. "So, who's our lucky third?" Ron asked.

Five paces ahead, Bonnie stopped suddenly, and turned slowly. "I don't know," she admitted. "Somebody able-bodied, able to withstand surprises, and who isn't too firmly attached to reality. And preferably without family ties." Eyes widening, Bonnie snapped her mouth shut and did a quick about-face.

The smiles disappeared from Kim and Ron. "Just how dangerous is this?" Ron asked. "Not that I'm chicken or anything, but a guy's got a right to know."

It was Kim's turn to become impatient. "Bonnie."

"Look, I don't know, OK? They didn't tell me everything, all right? I'm just the messenger girl!"

"So you don't know everything," Ron chided gently. He well remembered Bonnie's impetuous nature and famous temper, but he couldn't help needling her just a bit.

Bonnie looked at the pair from under heavy eyelids. "No. Happy now?" She shrugged and with an obvious effort straightened up and looked at Kim and Ron. "You two are so bright, you tell me. Who else fits the bill? Two won't do, it's gotta be three. Clock's ticking."

Ron eyed Kim sideways, saw her looking back with the same half-smile. "Sleeping Beauty?"

Kim nodded. "Sleeping Beauty."

* * *

The building was dilapidated, unusual in the normally well-kempt town. Kim grabbed a rotting door handle and gently pulled it open, while Ron flicked a flashlight beam into the gloom inside. "I hope she didn't pay the maid in advance," Ron joked, covering his nervousness. Dark, rotting houses were not his favorite places, and his nostrils were still filled with dust from the chamber where he'd spent the night.

Gingerly, the three tiptoed into the one-story building. Dust lay thick on the molded carpet, and broken furniture littered the small room. Ron recalled it used to be a grocery store or something, but its location on the outskirts of town doomed it to disuse and eventual abandonment. It was the perfect place to stash something, which Ron and Kim had done long before. Bonnie, betraying impatience but not unease, snapped, "What are we doing here? I thought the need for speed was clear. What are you going to find here, a mannequin or..." her voice trailed off. "Oh. Sneaky." A grudging note of respect crept into her voice. She seemed to know what to expect.

Slowly, they approached a long, low box that had been hastily shoved into a corner. A canvas covering, rotting at the edges and covered with centuries of dust, was draped over the the box's sloped top. Kim carefully pulled the fragile covering aside. Beneath lay a cryochamber, standard use millenia ago in the starships that carried immortal explorers between stars. A small green light indicated the chamber was still working.

And still occupied.

Kim reached down, finger hovering over the "Revive" button. She looked at Ron. "Dare we?"

Ron nodded once. "We dare. She's the right choice."

Taking a deep breath of musty air, Kim mashed the button and stepped back. Even though he knew better, Ron expected to hear the clunk of machinery, or puffs of gas, or something. But there was no indication, aside from a pair of faded green lights appearing on the top of the chamber. In less than a minute, the top of the chamber melted (or evaporated), revealing a blinking female figure struggling to sit up.

"That was dirty pool, even for you, Possible!" Her voice was husky, but Shego still exuded menace, fresh out of a sleep thousands of years long.

Kim reached out to help Shego out, but the villainess' claws lit up with green fire, and Kim abruptly pulled her arm back. The weak flame flickered out after only a moment, however, and Shego sagged. "OK, fine." She reached a wobbly hand and both Ron and Kim helped her sit, then stand. The villainess looked around at the decay and gloom, took in Bonnie, and then fixed her steely gaze back on Kim. "At least you didn't have Prince Stoppable wake me up with a kiss," she muttered. Then more firmly, "I'm surprised you woke me up. By the look of things, it's been a while."

"I told you we'd revive you," Kim replied. "I just never promised when." She gave the other woman a wicked grin.

Shego looked at Bonnie. "Aren't you dead?" she asked bluntly.

"Charming," Bonnie said. "OK, my patience is now officially fried. We're doing this thing, here, now." Striding to the relatively clear center of the dusty room, Bonnie touched her forefingers far above her head, then drew them apart in a quick drop of her arms. Her forefingers drew lines of liquid fire in the air, leaving a barely audible sizzle behind. Bending down, she continued drawing fire and drew the vertical circle to a close near her feet. A six foot tall hoop of shifting, shimmering white fire hung in the air. Bonnie drew back slightly, stuck a finger in her mouth, and then placed the moist fingertip directly in the center of the hoop.

Two-dimensional onyx night flowed from her fingertip, filling the hoop with an ebony shimmer. She removed her finger and stepped back.

"All aboard! Next stop, Wonderland!" Bonnie motioned for the others to precede her into the portal.

Shego blinked once. "You're kidding me."

Kim took one unresisting arm, and Ron gently grabbed the other. Although she could easily have shrugged at least Ron off, Shego allowed herself to be led to the mysterious, inky door. Ron took a deep breath, hefted his mission pack, and strode through first. Kim gently pushed Shego through, glanced at Bonnie, and jumped through.

Bonnie swaggered to the circle and stepped into it.

The dust wasn't even disturbed as white fire spat and fizzled into nothingness.


	6. Chapter 6

It wasn't a journey, Ron reflected, looking around, feet propped up comfortably

It wasn't a journey, Ron reflected, looking around, feet propped up comfortably. Or, at least he assumed he was looking around. And he assumed he was comfortable.

It was kind of hard to tell.

The environment, if it could be called that, was nondescript and... fuzzy. It was like someone took a picture of a room with windows facing the ocean and then attempted to create a 3-D version, but using only broad brush strokes. Ron thought it looked more like the IDEA of a room rather than an actual room. The low chair he sat in was likewise indistinct... his touch slid off the material without telling him anything about it. He also had no memory of sitting down after walking through Bonnie's portal. Flick-flick, there, then here. The walls, or what vaguely seemed like walls, sprouted from the uneven floor at some indeterminate distance from the group.

Ron's gaze landed on Kim, as she sat cross-legged on what looked (and felt like) white sand. Standing next to her, Shego looked like she was trying hard to get her bearings. She'd been awake for about two minutes, and Ron sympathized with her discomfort. Of course, he took a little guilty pleasure in her discomfort, but hey, Ron figured he was only human.

The same couldn't be said for Bonnie, who stood cross-armed in front of the other three. In contrast the their surroundings, Bonnie - or whatever the construct that looked like Bonnie actually was - fairly glowed with a rock-solid presence. Although her form was no larger than it had been before, her imperious gaze radiated a nearly palpable intensity, making her seem towering and forbidding. This Bonnie commanded respect, and got it, even from Shego.

"It's about time," Bonnie told the three, who bounced to their feet as if commanded by a general. Bonnie twirled and walked away from them, never quite reaching a door or wall. Shrugging at one another, Ron and Kim began trudging after the Bonnie avatar. Shego stood her ground.

"I don't suppose it's too much to ask for a little explanation?" she called to the others as they retreated. Bonnie snapped her fingers, and Shego found herself striding just behind Kim and Ron. "Great." She continued walking.

Ron's hand found Kim's, and they continued walking easily. As much as Ron tried, he couldn't see details of where they were. At first glance, it seemed like they were walking on wet sand, only it didn't stick to their shoes. There was no breath of wind, and Ron couldn't even tell if they were indoors or out. They had started off in what seemed like a room, but now an indistinct grayness faded into the featureless distance. Bonnie's stride was nearly mechanical.

"So just how long did you put me out for?" Shego asked from just behind Ron and Kim. The usual Shego snarky tone was back, but not in full force. Ron thought her snotty attitude seemed just for form's sake.

Kim glanced back as she walked, and ran some quick calculations through her wetware. "About twenty-five thousand years. You were in a REALLY bad mood when you went nighty-night."

"Who says that's changed?"

"You're welcome."

Shego paused, unsure of whether Kim's tone was honest or sarcastic. "For what?"

"Waking you up."

The villainess resumed walking. "It's going to be a lot longer than twenty five thousand years before I thank you for something." Her tone was a little stronger, a little steadier. Kim smiled just a little without letting her raven-haired nemesis see.

The foursome trudged through non-sticky, non-slippery sand-like ground for what seemed like forever. The indistinct horizon slowly formed into a series of regular shapes, but not like any buildings that Ron was familiar with. There was no sense of scale, no depth, nothing to make them solid. The shapes seemed based on pyramids and cones and other things that Ron had slept through in geometry and couldn't be bothered to look up through his wetware. Even as they closed in, the structures remained flat and oddly two-dimensional. Ron was reminded of movie sets, where just the fronts were built and held up with a few two by fours in the back.

A small group of people – Ron assumed they were people – stood in a circle just in front of the nearest… well, Ron had to call it a "building" even though there was no entrance or purpose that he could see. The waiting group appeared to be composed of seven people, but the shimmer of distance sometimes made it seem more, sometimes less. As they drew closer, Ron decided it was seven. Even he could count that high after a sleepless night.

Bonnie led the three immortals to the person standing in the middle of the circle. The man was non-descript… about thirty five years old in appearance, dirty blond hair but nicely cut, a gray suit that wouldn't look out of place in Middleton, and a blank expression on his plain face. Bonnie strode up and stopped just in front of him. She looked up at the man, who blinked once.

"They're all yours, none the worse for wear. And I didn't play with them hardly at all, just like you said. Even though they deserved it, just for being them."

His gaze lifted from Bonnie and rested for a measured second on Kim, then Ron, then Shego. His expression didn't change until a good five seconds had gone by, and then he smiled like he'd just remembered how.

"Welcome, my friends. Thank you for coming. We will try to make this as simple as possible." The smile blinked off, just like that, like he'd forgotten to make his facial muscles work. He turned abruptly and began walking among the odd buildings.

Shrugging, Bonnie motioned for the rest to follow once again. With a put-upon sigh, Shego started trudging behind the others. Kim and Ron shared a quick glance – by mutual consent, and long years of reading each others' faces, they would go along with this for a while longer. Until they got some real answers.

After a short stroll, the group – now followed by the other six people who'd met Bonnie and her little entourage – stopped at a small tiered depression in the ground. It was shaped sort of like an amphitheater, but without a focus. The six strangers and their nondescript leader each went to the lowest step, followed by Bonnie and finally Kim, Ron and Shego. The immortal trio instinctively formed a defensive triangle. Ron suppressed a smile but didn't point it out to Shego; she'd just go all green on him, and Ron figured this certainly wasn't a good time to honk off his hosts.

Standing at the lower steps, Ron began to feel self-conscious as the other seven looked at him, Kim, and Shego. Bonnie stood off to the side, arms crossed, and looked bored. No help there, Ron figured. After a couple of uncomfortable minutes, Ron couldn't take the silent stares any more.

"Hi. Ron. Ron Stoppable, pleased to meet you. And you are…?" He extended his hand to the nondescript guy, who stated at Ron's hand until Ron dropped it. Then he looked up and smiled, and for the first time Ron thought it was actually genuine.

Extending his hand, he told Ron, "Malcolm. I'm Malcolm, and I'm pleased to meet you, Ron Stoppable." Turning to Kim, he did the same, and then once more to Shego, who looked like she wanted to slice off his hand to examine later. Undaunted, Malcolm dropped his hand when Shego didn't offer hers, then turned back to Ron. And stood silently.

OK, another impasse, thought Ron, and then he decided to go for it. "So, I take it you guys are, um, either the ones who did a vanishing act on us, or you're their descendents, right?"

A long-haired woman sitting on the lowest tier answered. "We are them."

More silence. This time it was Kim who broke the lull. "So what exactly are we supposed to do here?" She silently grabbed Ron's hand and gave it a squeeze.

A third person stood. Ron thought this one looked a little familiar, but couldn't place her. She looked directly at Ron and said, "I choose you."

Before Kim could protest, the spokesman walked to Kim. "I choose you."

"I'm flattered, really, but what exactly…" Kim's protest trailed off as another of the silent group stood and approached Shego.

"I choose you," the woman told the simmering villainess.

The sky disappeared.


	7. Chapter 7

Startled, Ron took a quick step back and looked up. It wasn't so much that the sky went away, it just… was suddenly never there in the first place. There was no black, no gray, no depth, not even the darkness of space which Ron had spent so long exploring. Try as he might, he couldn't remember what the place-above-the-ground had looked like just a moment before. The sky was a mental vacuum that sucked uncomfortably at the edges of his brain.

He shook his head. All these weird metaphors were making him kind of dizzy. Then he smiled. He'd used "metaphor" in a sentence.

Kim gasped a little, and pointed to something in the non-sky behind Ron. Turning, he saw a point of light slowly descend. After a few heartbeats he noticed it wasn't so much a point as a thread growing slowly larger, dropping from where they sky should've been. He guessed it would touch down not far from them. Ron saw Shego glance up, then down again quickly. Bonnie watched the group with her usual superior smirk. The locals didn't seem impressed with the new décor.

Kim turned back to Malcolm. "So here's the part where you explain exactly what you mean by choosing us." Her voice was steady and even, non-threatening, but Ron felt the steel in her words. He tried to stand a little straighter to back her up, but felt like he was posing and stopped before he looked too silly.

Malcolm opened his mouth, but before saying a word, the long-haired woman who'd spoken before quickly stood. "You're now partisan. You may not speak," she told him. Turning to Kim, Ron and Shego, she continued, "My name is Tana. I will explain as much as I'm allowed, then you will each go with your chosen and hear their argument. We will meet at the Chorlix." She pointed to the light thread that was nearing the ground beyond the nearest group of buildings.

Before she could continue, Shego raised her fist, which started to glow. "Let's hold off for just a second here, OK? You may have noticed I'm not exactly a willing participant here. Kimmy and her BF shanghaied me, and I need two things before I start venting my displeasure over the landscape." Tana nodded. "First: I'm starving, I haven't eaten in twenty five thousand years. Can someone rustle me up a Caesar salad or something?" Ron expected puzzled looks, but instead one of the locals stood, walked to the nearest building, and returned a few seconds later carrying a small bowl. Neat trick, he thought, but before he could put in his own order, Shego continued.

"Not bad," she said grudgingly, spearing lettuce with an ivory-colored two-tined fork. "Next," she said around a mouthful of chicken, "Kimmy will tell me exactly why she felt it necessary to put me on ice." She turned to the redhead. "It's not like I was any different than I'd been for years before that. Were you feeling threatened that I'd steal loser-boy from you or something?"

Kim looked down for a moment, and Ron could see she was doing a quick lookup in her wetware of that long-ago day. Her memories had only just returned, and Ron knew exactly how disconcerting it was. Kim's eyes rose to meet Shego's.

"That was the problem. You weren't different. The rest of us wanted to dive into the past and not think about the bigger picture. You kept reminding us of our… condition." Ron gaped. Kim almost never talked about the effects of Dementor's anagathic spray, even before they suppressed their memories of the long years.

Shego snorted. "You bet I didn't want to forget. If you decide to go navel-staring, hey, knock yourself out. Just don't expect me to squat down beside you and start drooling too."

Kim shook her head. "I think it was your refusal to accept wetware that kept you from forgetting."

"What, stick all that goo in my head just so I can get email faster? Who's left that's interesting enough for me to want to talk to anyway?" She finished her salad and tossed the empty bowl back at the woman who'd brought it. The bowl didn't quite hit her, but it didn't land either. Ron blinked. Bonnie hadn't been kidding about going down the rabbit hole.

Shego kicked the sand-like ground. "When we're through here, you and I are going to have a little one-on-one chat, little miss priss. Don't think I'll go easy on you, either. Nobody puts me on the sidelines just because I make them think." Her eyes shone, and tiny wisps of green plasma crawled over her balled-up fists for just a moment. Shoulders tight, Shego twirled back to Tana, who had stood patiently while Shego grilled Kim.

"Now you can talk. And it better be interesting."

Tana bowed slightly, expression never anything but neutral. "As I've said, we are the descendents of humanity. This is not our home," she said, gesturing to the odd buildings around her, and the not-sky above. "But it is a convenient place where we may all meet.

"Each time you raised up a new group of mortal humans, we learned and grew and became more than what we were, until we reached a point known as a singularity. We had learned how to become far more than you had taught us, that there were new horizons and new challenges for our burgeoning minds and hearts. So we joyously stepped into the next phase of our existence, even knowing you could not follow. We discovered places of beauty you can never know, regions where space and time literally spoke to us and told us the secrets we yearned to uncover. We met those who came before and came after – all three separate waves of humanity that shed their bounds and came to live between a whisper and a shout. We can't describe our existence to you, and I won't try. This place, these bodies… are all constructs to help you feel more comfortable. I am not even a single person, for instance, but a meld of partial and full personae."

Ron looked at the other "locals" and wondered if they were even weirder than a woman made of several personalities. Malcolm looked human enough, the woman next to Shego was relatively normal, and the small woman next to Ron could've walked down any street in Middleton without anyone commenting. There was still just something about her that tickled his memory, but before he could start a search through his wetware, Tana's voice caught his attention.

"Each of the three different groups went a slightly separate way, but we all ended up in the same place, in the space between real and unreal. It's impossible to explain, but it's the most logical destination for us. We met each other, and shared stories of our youth and our immortal benefactors. You should know we hold you in great affection and high esteem."

Shego barked a laugh. "Got a weird way of showing it." Tana ignored Shego, earning a small brownie point in Ron's book.

"In our place, we pursue endeavors I can't and won't describe. But one goal drives each of us: finding out what's next. Just as we reached a singularity from you, we strove to find the next singularity and discover answers to questions you don't even know exist.

"We found it."

Tana looked at Malcolm, at the woman by Shego, and at the woman by Ron. "But we are now torn. Each of the three groups has a slightly different goal in mind. To proceed, there must be unity. We cannot answer the question ourselves, and strange as it seems to us, only help from our ageless aunts and uncles can move us forward. This is why you are here.

"Malcolm represents the first, and oldest group. He will describe his group's vision to Kim. Morla," she nodded at the woman by Shego, "will discuss the second group's ideas. And Yuma will discuss the youngest group's wishes with Ron." Yuma looked up at Ron and smiled.

Ron felt the air go out of him. He felt incredibly stupid and embarrassed for not recognizing the young-looking woman. But she was not somebody Ron ever felt he would see again. He heard Kim gasp too, and knew that she recognized his companion.

Tana continued, "Each pair will appear at the Chorlix, where judgment will be rendered. Listen well to your chosen partner. Our future, and perhaps yours, rests in your hands."

Ron barely heard the end of Tana's speech. He stood and looked at the girl, who beamed back at him, clearly pleased that he'd finally recognized her.

"Hi," Ron said to his daughter.


	8. Chapter 8

Memories flooded Ron's brain, both from his own gray matter and through his wetware. Long-unused images, sounds, feelings tumbled their way through him and straight into his stomach. Legs weak, Ron made an effort to stay upright.

Yuma!

The young woman bounced up and down like a schoolgirl, a huge grin plastered on her face. She was clearly pleased at Ron's reaction to her presence. "How've you been, Popsicle?"

The pet name sent more tendons quivering in Ron's legs. The small bit of his head that continued to tick said Yuma's presence could be a ruse, but if so, it was a very, very good trick. She wasn't exactly like he remembered her, but in every essence, she was his adopted daughter.

The daughter he hadn't seen in fifty thousand years.

Somehow sensing that he was a little too wobbly for comfort, Yuma slipped his arm over her shoulders, snuggling like she used to do when they would watch TV in the apartment in Alexandria. The tactile memory, unlike the flood of other recollections, steadied Ron enough to form a sentence.

"How…" he started, then tried again. "How've you been, kiddo? Long time no see." There, he could do it. Score a point for the Ronster.

Yuma giggled. "Oh, you know, been around, seen this and that. I'd love to tell you all about it, but I think we're supposed to have a grownup discussion first." She regarded Ron with some concern. "You gonna be OK?"

Straightening up, he glanced at Kim for support. Her face had a worried yet surprised look. She shrugged a little, then nodded her head. Kim seemed to think he should go along with this, at least, and he trusted her judgment. Her support lent him strength, and he stood free of Yuma's arm.

"No problem," he told Yuma. "But before we talk, I need to do something." Ron quickly walked to Kim and gently took her into his arms. Touching foreheads, they connected through their wetware interfaces and shared an intimate, wordless moment. Be careful, they didn't say to each other. Be careful. The moment was broken by Shego's annoyed voice.

"Sweet and all, but what's the word I'm looking for…? Oh yeah: 'nauseating'. Can we get a move-on here? Anything's better than watching the Teen Hugging Hour."

The immortal teens separated, fingers lingering in a last gentle connection, until Ron stepped back next to Yuma, and Kim returned to Malcolm's side. Shego and her guide Morla immediately strode off between buildings, and Malcolm slowly led Kim in another direction. Yuma took Ron's hand and pulled him in yet another path. Tana and the rest of the onlookers discreetly melted into the background, and Ron wasn't sure that was just a metaphor.

Steadier now, Ron let Yuma lead him. She kept a little ahead, looking back now and again. "How about that Tana? She sure is full of herself, huh?" Yuma's voice floated back to Ron. "I mean, do you think she could've been a little, I dunno, less like a freaky robot and more like a person?"

"Well, she did say she was some kind of glompulated personality disorder or something…" Ron didn't feel like recalling her exact words. Close enough.

"Just because she's less a person and more of a committee is no excuse to be weird." Yuma fell silent.

He thought how best to approach questioning his adopted daughter… tact was definitely called for, he decided. A subtle, masterful set of probing questions, designed to throw her off guard so he could discover any hidden agendas. Yes, this called for a deft hand.

"So just where the heck did you all go? One day there, the next… poof. I've gotta know."

Well, so much for subtlety, he thought.

Yuma didn't break her stride. "Did you ever used to look up at the sky and wonder what was out there?"

"You know I did. You also know I explored it for a long time."

"I know you know I know." She giggled again, a little-girl sound that tugged at Ron's heart. He'd loved her giggle. "There were things we saw, and we wanted to know more about them. So we went and found them." She didn't seem to want to discuss the details.

Ron sighed. "But everyone at once? I mean, not even a 'Goodbye, we're evolving into higher beings' card or anything? Voicemail? Something."

Yuma looked at Ron with a sad expression. "We know it hurt you. But we couldn't share with you. You just weren't ready." She looked down. "You might never be ready."

Several paces went by before Yuma looked back up. "Remember our apartment? We had a whole city block to ourselves in Alexandria. The towers seemed to go up forever. I used to dream of exploring them, and finding ancient treasures or lost tribes of apartment dwellers. And the time we went exploring and found a room full of stuffed toys? You took a picture of me surrounded by plush, remember?"

Ron took a minute to answer. "I seem to remember something like that," he replied dryly. The photo was in a box, in the bunker outside Middleton. The top of the box still had tear streaks from when Ron closed it for the last time.

Yuma skipped ahead a bit, waited for Ron, then skipped again. "I always wondered if you remembered me. You'd lived for so long, and I was only in your life for a few decades. When you didn't recognize me earlier, I thought you'd forgotten for good."

Ron laughed, and was pleased that it wasn't bitter. "Forget? You? I'd never been so frustrated or so busy in my life after they decanted you and put you in my arms." He now vividly recalled the day Yuma came into his life, in the waning days of the last generation of mortal humans. With the population declining and their interest in day-to-day life slipping away, Ron and the other immortals went to extremes to prolong their mortal kin. But even as the immortals moved into the emptying high-tech cities and adopted test-tube babies, the rest of the race was intent on moving along to their next step.

"Kim said I was crazy, but she made a good Mom, didn't she?"

"It's hard for me to judge, but I think so."

"She spoiled you rotten."

"And you didn't? Face it, Pops, what Yuma wanted, Yuma gotted." She grinned impishly back at Ron, impatiently waiting for him to catch up.

Even with the almost certain knowledge that they would soon be alone again, it had been one of the best time of Ron's long, long life. He and Kim had grown so close over so many centuries and millennia that they sometimes thought like one person. But there was no growth, no change. They were, at heart, high schoolers.

Until Yuma came along and the two immortal teens had the chance to play Family one last time. It had been a really good fifty years, Ron thought. Maybe that was why it hurt so badly after… well, after. We had a taste of a normal life, Ron thought. Just a taste.

Emerging from his reverie, Ron jogged a little to catch up. "So what about your friends? What were their names again… Cheyenne, Madison, Kissimmee? Did they all, um, depart on the last train from mortalsville?"

Yuma slowed. "Everyone except Wyoming. She never showed up." There was a sad moment as Ron remembered the freckly young redhead. With so few children in those last days, each friend was precious.

"Clifton made it, though." Ron heard something he didn't expect in her voice. Even though she'd lived with Ron and Kim for fifty years, she had still been a child, adulthood delayed through genetic manipulation. But maybe she hadn't been such a child after all…

"Did he make a move on you? Are you OK? If he did anything, I hope you used those kung fu moves Kim taught you. I always knew there was something wrong about that kid…"

Yuma laughed. "You are SUCH a parent. No, he was a perfect gentleman, unfortunately…"

"What does THAT mean?"

"… and besides, that all happened fifty thousand years ago, remember? You sound like it was just yesterday."

Ron took a deep breath. She was right. But it was amazing how fast that parenting instinct came back! Barkin with his dozens of sacks of flour (and sugar) would've been proud.

Not liking the direction this conversation was taking, Ron cast around desperately for another topic. "So what was the part what's-her-face was talking about back there, anyway? Something about explaining why we're here."

"Fine, Dad, we'll talk about business." She slowed, made a slight detour around a building. They were emerging from the cluster of odd-shaped buildings and Ron could see a pillar of light in the distance, spearing into the not-sky. It was apparently this Chorlix thing where they were supposed to meet the others.

"Three sets of mortal humans reached a Singularity, and found new realms and new challenges. You helped three sets of humans ascend to a different plane of existence. We took separate paths, but eventually all ended up at the same place. It's not exactly crowded, and we're don't fight about stuff, not really… but it's still like sharing a house with strangers. It might be a big house, but there are still territorial disputes, who put the empty milk back in the fridge, whose turn is it to clean out the cat box, who left their dirty underwear is on the stairs, stuff like that – only different.

"When we got here, some of the older ones had already gotten bored and were looking for What's Next. We didn't care, we'd just gotten here and were having a blast with our new existence. That's kind of a simplistic cause-and-effect explanation, since the concept of linear time doesn't translate exactly to the realms we found ourselves in…" Yuma paused when she noticed Ron's eyes begin to glaze. "Sorry, I'll try to keep this in Dad-speak."

"Huh? Sorry. Yes, please and thank you."

Yuma continued, "So they were looking for the Next Big Thing, and eventually found it. There are apparently other means of existence and thought that are as far beyond us as we are beyond you. No disrespect intended," she added hurriedly, but Ron didn't take offence.

"What, you mean like people made of energy?" Ron thought he had this one down.

But Yuma shook her head. "Things and places that make concepts like 'energy' and 'matter' seem old-fashioned. I wish I could explain it, but I just can't. Take my word – these people are Advanced, with a capital Ad. And they talked with us." She sounded a little awed. Ron shivered; he figured that anything she found awe-inspiring would probably melt him into a greasy puddle.

"So what part do I play in this grand drama?" Ron was proud of the phrasing, but Yuma didn't seem to notice.

Yuma stopped and looked at him. "You get to talk with them and argue our case."

* * *

"Dad? Ron? Wake up. I hope you didn't hit your head too hard when you fainted…" Yuma was shaking Ron.

Prying his eyes open, Ron struggled upright. "I didn't faint, I was taking a power nap!" The overload was fading quickly, wetware helping regulate adrenalin production and slowing his heart rate.

"Riiiight. Sorry, didn't think it would hit you that hard."

They resumed walking. The Chorlix remained an indeterminate distance away, no matter how long they strolled toward it. Ron didn't mind, it gave him more time to absorb Yuma's story.

"So what exactly do you expect me to say?"

Yuma grinned at him, a pure ten-thousand-watt smile that she only used when she really wanted something. "Just tell them we want to be friends. That's all."

Ron suspected it would be a little more complicated than that, but held his tongue.

"The people from the Chorlix need us to have one solution. Some of us don't want to go anywhere at all. Some of us want everyone to migrate to this new thing – apparently there are benefits in numbers. But the group I represent would simply like us to stay where we are, until we're all ready to make the next jump."

"But why do I have to tell them? You've got a tongue, and I know for darn sure you're not shy about flapping it and making sounds come out of your face. What good can some ancient, not-even-advanced immortal teenager do?"

"When I said we all have to agree, I mean it – all humans, including immortals. They won't accept an argument without representatives of all groups present."

Ron thought for a while. It sounded simple enough. "Why would I be an advocate for you, though? Maybe I feel like taking the leap and become Mr. Energy." Not that he did, but just for argument's sake…

Yuma stopped and looked directly into Ron's eyes. "I don't think you do, but that's not the point. I think you wouldn't force anyone else to do something they didn't want to do." They started walking again.

She had him there, all right.

"You got me there. But one more dumb question. Why me and Kim?"

Yuma shrugged. "We thought we could trust you. We didn't know who you'd bring as a third, and I'm a little worried about Lean Mean Green. She's unpredictable. But free will is a vital part of this process. That's why we had to wait for you to remember. So here we are."

Ron looked up and noticed they had almost reached their destination. On closer inspection, it wasn't a single pillar of light, but what looked like luminous ropes wound in and around each other to form an organic-looking column that stretched up into the weird non-sky. Light bursts pulsed up and down through each strand at different rates, and the configuration seemed to shift when Ron wasn't looking directly at it. He couldn't tell for sure, it looked like the strands were close but none touched.

"The others are almost here," Yuma pointed to Kim walking with Malcolm, and Shego stalking along the ground with Morla.

Ron gestured to the Chorlix. "So, is there like a phone booth in there or something? How do I talk with these people?"

Yuma smiled. "Each strand is made up of a separate reality. A consciousness resides in each strand. Each consciousness is made up of trillions of living beings, but all the strands speak with one voice. We don't know how it works, but it does… and it's really cool!"

Ron's eyes widened. "I can see why you'd want to just be friends with something like that before jumping in bed with it. Dinner at a nice restaurant, maybe go to the movies a few times first. Yeah, a relationship takes time. I'm with ya on that one. Now what?"

"We wait for the others, then you will present our viewpoint."

"No pressure. Great." Ron watched the others approach with growing apprehension.

* * *

Shego worked hard at not huffing and puffing next to Morla, who moved with mechanical precision. Shego said, "So that's the deal, then. I'll 'persuade' these superbeing things to leave you alone, and I get…"

Morla interrupted. "You'll get exactly what you asked for. But I must tell you, it seems a waste for one of your talents."

"You just let me deal with that. It's been a good long time since those Middleton morons have had a taste of a real supervillain."

"But I see no reason for you to subjugate yourself to another. You are more than capable of ruling these remnants of humanity by yourself."

Shego barked a laugh. "Ever hear the word 'puppet'? The henchwoman always has an escape route and Swiss bank account set up, and always gets away while the rabble takes down the bad guy. Simple as that."

Morla looked over at Shego. "You are lying."

Shego glared back. If she looked deep, she had to admit the other woman was right. And it was really, really galling to know that Morla knew it. "My reasons don't matter. That's my price, take it or leave it."

"Agreed. And you'll accept our assistance in your persuasive attempts."

Shego nodded. She didn't like relying on somebody else, but she saw the sense of it.

"We've arrived." Shego saw with some surprise that they were nearing Stoppable and his kid. It seemed like they'd been trudging over the featureless plain forever, and then boom! There it was, the Chorlix right in front of them. This place was freaky, and Shego was looking forward to putting it behind her.

* * *

"I see your point," Kim conceded to Malcolm. His arguments were very persuasive, but there was just something about them that seemed incomplete to Kim. Individually, all his conclusions were sound, but they didn't seem to add up to a whole. "I'm just having a hard time putting it all together."

"Understandable," he said. "Some of the logic structures were developed after we departed your plane of existence, so they wouldn't be familiar to you. But surely you can see they are sound."

Kim hesitated. "Sure, but just incomplete." Another thought struck her. "What exactly happens if your argument wins?"

"We will all become part of the Chorlix. You'll see some of its components when we get nearer." He looked over at Kim. "I trust that even if I haven't convinced you, you will plead our case to the best of your ability, yes? You will help us?"

His plea for her help hit Kim in a place she knew she couldn't refuse. "Sure, of course I'll help. I just wish I could put it all together. It'd be more effective."

Malcolm smiled. "I'm sure you will be fine. You have served humanity selflessly for so very long, I have no doubt you will shine today. We could ask for no better advocate."

His smooth words calmed Kim. She'd do her best to relate his arguments. If only they wouldn't keep slipping away from her when she poked at them…

* * *

Like a ghost, Tana stepped out from behind the glowing Chorlix column, followed by the others Ron and Kim had seen earlier. The Chorlix was only a couple of meters wide, but Ron thought it seemed to have a whole lot of hiding space behind it.

"Are you prepared?" she asked the three groups.

Shego spoke first. "Let's get this over with." Ron and Kim both nodded.

Tana turned to the Chorlix, and said in a self-important voice, "We are gathered as you've requested. Are you ready to hear our petitions?"

Nothing visible changed in the various curving strands of light, but Ron felt a growing intensity of… something. Like he was under a massive magnifying glass. The thought made him uncomfortable; he had a momentary vision of being fried by some kind of magnified power if his argument didn't come out just right. But he glanced at Yuma and decided she wouldn't put him in that position – and if she did, she'd darn well tell him the consequences first. He relaxed just a little.

"Hello. Thank you for talking with us. We are the Chorlix." Ron wasn't sure if he heard the words through his ears or if it went directly into his brain. The voice was deep and easygoing, and as much the opposite of Tana's portentous tones as it could be. It didn't sound like a super-duper consciousness built from trillions of beings, it sounded like a favourite uncle. He relaxed a little more.

"We've been talking with you for a while now, and we would welcome you among us. Since you can't come to consensus yourselves about your level of involvement, we've agreed to hear your viewpoints and make the decision. It's rare that we agree to this… but we see how your presence could enrich us all. So we are willing to take the risk. And there is a risk, to you and to us.

"Who would like to start?"

Kim raised her hand. "I'll go first, if that's OK," she said, glancing at Ron, who nodded minutely. Shego shrugged, as if who went first was nothing to her.

Facing the Chorlix, Kim began by restating Malcolm's arguments. She stuck to his script, unable to bring anything new to his words. Essentially, she argued for full integration of all humans, even those who didn't want it. The metaphors she used – children being taught by parents – seemed to have underlying assumptions she wasn't sure she bought. For starters, she wasn't sure she believed the Chorlix were so far advanced that they knew better than humans. But she dutifully recounted Malcolm's arguments.

After she finished, the Chorlix seemed to absorb the argument. Then, it spoke. "Thank you, Kim. The arguments are persuasive. But do you believe them yourself?"

Kim was afraid they'd ask her that. Even though she'd promised Malcolm she'd give it her best shot, she wouldn't lie for him. "Not entirely," she admitted. "I would've liked some time to think about it, though."

"Would you mind if we got a little more direct information from you? We respect your boundaries, but would like to know more from you. You have interfaces which would make this a minor effort."

Invade her wetware? Kim hesitated. But standing here, on a seemingly endless plain in front of wavering tentacles of light, she couldn't find a reason to say "no" that didn't sound petty. Finally, she nodded. A slight tingle spread from her palms, up her arms, and down her spine, but it wasn't unpleasant and it only lasted a few seconds. She knew when the Chorlix had departed her, and took quick stock; nothing seemed different or wrong. She sighed, relieved.

"We appreciate your willingness to share, Kim," the Chorlix said gently. "Next?"

Ron stuck up his hand. If Kim could do it, so could he. Yuma gave him a little pat of encouragement on his shoulder, and he stepped up a pace.

"Hello, Ron. OK, let's hear it." Ron could've sworn there was a smile in the voice.

He cleared his throat, shuffled his feet, stuck his hands in his pockets. Then he looked up and said, "We want to be friends."

The Chorlix voice didn't hesitate. "Good enough. Mind if we take a peek like we did with Kim?" The smile was still in the voice, but Ron's shoulders hunched anyway. That was it?

"Sure, go for it. Just don't leave muddy footprints in the hall, and close the door on the way out." His bravado was more for himself than anyone else.

The tingle lasted a few seconds, then was gone. A breath whooshed out of Ron, and he stepped back to Yuma, where he stage-whispered, "See, I told you it wouldn't be so bad!" Yuma smiled at him, apparently pleased with his performance.

Finally it was Shego's turn. The pale villainess turned to her companion, who placed a hand on Shego's forearm for a moment. Ron couldn't be sure, but thought he saw a spark of energy slither from Morla to Shego. He shivered. That couldn't be good.

Shego faced the Chorlix, and said in a loud voice. "Just leave us alone." Before the voice could respond, she brought up her hands, now glowing an intense green, and flung a pair of energy bursts at the Chorlix.


	9. Chapter 9

As with any good action movie, Ron's senses seemed to slow down so Shego's blast almost seemed to crawl across the short distance to the Chorlix. He saw the surprise on her face at the sheer power of the blast; saw the way the Chorlix tentacles writhed and tried to evade the wrinkled bolts of green lightning. He watched the sliver of green just brush a tentacle that was fractionally too slow, and saw the undulating tube silently split. The halves sprayed sparks, and the ends twitched frantically. The air became thick with emotion, whether from those around the Chorlix, or the Chorlix itself, Ron couldn't tell.

Then time sped back up to normal, and chaos reigned.

A mighty **whumpf** emanated from the glowing strands of light, knocking everyone on their butts. Within an instant, however, two of Tana's companions appeared next to Shego and gripped her arms in what looked like a painful move. Shego glared at them, but didn't try to force herself free, just stood up and watched the rest of the group with a mixture of defiance and unease.

Kim and Ron both watched the split rope of light as it flopped around the other threads within the Chorlix. Yuma stood up next to the pair, and watched intently, whites around her eyes showing clearly. Of the advanced humans, Malcolm seemed the most moved; he appeared almost near tears. "No…" he whispered, over and over. Tana just glared at Shego, then moved in front of the green villainess and her sponsor.

Extending her arm, Tana poked a finger onto Morla's chin. "This cannot be forgiven." Morla, smiling, seemed to dissolve like milk poured into coffee.

Tana turned to Shego, her finger still extended. Ron and Kim both yelled, "No!" just before the finger touched Shego's face, and Tana hesitated. "You can't do that!" Kim yelled, and ran to stand by Shego. "We won't let you." Ron puffed up beside her, torn but siding with Kim as always.

"Even after what you just witnessed? You have no concept of what was shattered! Even we don't understand the ramifications of this action." Crazy sparks of light from the Chorlix made her eyes seem even more intense.

"That's murder. That's not what we came here for."

Shego tossed her head. "I don't need your protection, Princess." But she didn't protest too hard.

Tana thought for a moment, then lowered her hand. "Very well. You assume responsibility for this one." The two holding Shego's arms released her, and the three advanced humans retreated.

Shego pointedly didn't thank Kim. Tossing her hair again, she said, "Now what?"

The voice of the Chorlix spoke. "As we said, this was a risk for us as well as you. This place is a meeting ground, one we cannot access directly. We have no way of healing the harm that has been inflicted on us. As you watch, an entire universe is dying – untold sentient creatures, their entire thought and life and history, fading from all existences. We are lessened."

Kim strode up to face the glowing cords. "Well, is there anything we can do? We're really sorry about this, and we'll help if we can." The dancing lights from the Chorlix shone over her face, casting odd shadows, but Ron watched her determination and never found her more beautiful.

Silence for nearly a minute. Then, the Chorlix replied, "There is a way, but the price is high. You will not survive."

Ron and Kim stepped forward at the same time. "I'll do it," each said, then looked at one another defiantly.

Kim put her hand gently on Ron's chest. "Ron, you know this is something I have to do. It's who I am." A single tear slid down her cheek, sparkling from the light of the Chorlix.

Ron wanted to argue, to yell, to persuade, even sling her over his shoulder and drag her out of the way – as if she'd let him. All sorts of arguments began to form in his head, but even before he opened his mouth, he knew she was right. Helping people was her thing. Helping Kim was his.

Surrounded by multiply-evolved humans on a plain under a missing sky, with the super-intelligent consciousness of dozens of universes undulating in front of them, Kim and Ron faced each other, all else ignored. Fingers intertwined, they leaned together in a last kiss. All the long centuries of sharing one anothers' lives was reflected in the gentle touching of lips… habits and impulses and muscle twitches and sighs and desires all known and shared intimately. Knowing it was the very last time made them both savor it all the more. Thoughts and emotions twined around one another through wetware links, until their entire consciousnesses were focused on their lips. With a slight intake of breath, Kim drew back and broke contact. Unnoticed tears streaked down her face as they faced one another. There was absolutely nothing either of them could say that they didn't already know.

All the long years, all the disappointment of watching others have a family, children, grandchildren… all the accomplishments and discoveries, everything… something had kept her going. Even during those tough first 50,000 years, in another timeline where she was despised and Ron was stranded on another planet, she hadn't given up. And she wasn't giving up now, no matter how it felt. Her mind could easily justify trading her life for untold billions or trillions.

But her heart ached for Ron's loss after she was gone.

With a shudder, Kim turned away from Ron and faced the Chorlix. "What do I need to do?"

"Grab both ends of the stricken cord. Hold on. You will know what to do."

Everyone was watching her, but Kim was used to that. Striding forward with more confidence than she really felt, she watched the flipping cord of light and timed her grab. She had to stretch tall to get the top part, but once snagged she had a firm grip, and the bottom half was easier. She knew she held them, but she felt no pressure from holding anything – it was like holding air. The spasms of the cord damped immediately after she grabbed it.

She'd know what to do, would she? Nothing was happening. Thinking to heal the break, she brought the two ends back together, and then started to feel something. And it wasn't fun. A buzzing in her head threatened to damp out her vision, and her teeth rattled. It felt something like an electrical shock (which she'd experienced numerous times) coupled with an earthquake in a blender. She held on and held on, willing the ends to reunite, but she couldn't tell if anything was happening. The two ends didn't want to flap around, which was good, but she couldn't tell if the tear was mending. Moment after moment, she strained to hold the two ends firm, but her strength failed surprisingly fast. Just before blacking out, she finally felt an intelligence from the strand.

"No."

With a sudden jerk, both ends flew out of Kim's grasp, and she stumbled backwards. She would've fallen if Ron hadn't been there to catch her. Massive gasps drew in flavourless air, and soon her heart rate came back to normal. Vision returned, and strength flowed back into her arms and legs. Swallowing through a dry mouth, she looked up at Ron as he cradled her in his lap. "Did it work?"

Wordlessly, Ron looked over at the Chorlix. The broken cable of light twitched its ends, showing no sign of Kim's efforts.

Kim looked at the Chorlix. "Why didn't it work? Wasn't I strong enough?"

Once again, the voice was delayed, but finally answered, "You had strength, but you lack something essential. Intent is as important as deed. There is a spectrum – the one who did this is at one end of the spectrum. You are at the other. We need assistance from one who contains both ends of the spectrum."

"Yo."

Kim looked up at Ron, who had just raised his hand. "Ron, no!"

Ron smiled down at Kim, whose head still lay in his lap. "If I wasn't a good guy, you wouldn't have anything to do with me, would you? But I'm also Zorpox the Great, remember. I think he just described me.

"It's my turn."

Struggling out of his lap, Kim threw her arms around Ron. Now she knew how he felt, each time she dove into the mouth of the dragon. But this time was for keeps.

Disentengling himself from Kim, Ron turned and quickly strode to the Chorlix and grabbed both ends. Without pause, he brought the ends together, and his hair stood on end. Light showed through his skin. After a few seconds, a bright light engulfed Ron and the Chorlix. When it cleared, the broken strand was whole once again.

Ron lay on the ground, motionless.

Without a word, Kim knelt down, turned Ron over. His face was peaceful, hair askew as always, but his limbs had a looseness that told the true story. Yuma reached down, and gently closed his eyes. A single tear fell on her adopted father's face before she withdrew.

Kim drew a shuddering breath. Just a few moments before, she had been thinking about what had kept her going. Even without Ron those first few thousand years, she persevered. After they were reunited, she kept going on. Despite her increased longing for a family of her own, she didn't allow despair to overcome her. She now realized that even the slim chance of having a family with Ron was what kept her getting up, day after day.

Now even that slim hope was gone. Her reason for existence was gone. She didn't cry, didn't rail against his choice. But her shoulders slumped. It was over.

A strong hand grabbed her arm, pulled her to her feet. Shego's bright green eyes drilled into Kim's slack face, and the villainess gave Kim a little shake. "I didn't wind my way through the intestines of time to get dumped into a universe where you just give up," Shego snapped. "So do your mourning and let's get out of here!"

The non-sequitur of _Shego_ reaching out to Kim snapped her out of her fugue. She nodded woodenly, stepped out of Shego's grip. With one last look behind her, she turned away and began walking.

Ron's corpse cooled behind her.


	10. Chapter 10

Syncopation.

Ron wasn't sure why that word came to mind, but it described his state of being just about as well as anything. Thoughts danced around him, just outside his notice, but pressing against his mind. There was no physical sensation, but new senses seemed to blossom and he could taste thoughts, smell emotion. And feel the immensity of a new universe all around him.

_Being dead isn't so bad_, he thought. _If I __**am**__ dead._

"You are very much alive. More than ever, in fact." The familiar voice of the Chorlix echoed in his brain. Well, whatever served as a brain in this realm.

The penny dropped. "I'm inside the Chorlix?" If he'd had a voice, it would've squeaked. "Coooooool." And it was. This wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind, but hey, it was better than the alternative.

When he saw Kim fall, he knew he'd need to try. He could do the math, just like Kim. (_Only more slowly_, some honest part of his mind chimed in.) He knew the consequences, and he knew just exactly what Kim would be feeling – he'd felt it himself moments before. He wished he could do something about that.

The Chorlix seemed to know what his thoughts were, even if it didn't directly read his mind. There were no secrets here. "We can't directly affect the realm where you came from, but you still have a link. And here's an idea…" The combined minds of the Chorlix poured knowledge and suggestion into Ron's mind, and he felt himself starting to become more a part of the Chorlix.

"Whoa, whoa, just a second… I can do that? Really?" He felt gentle assent from the Chorlix. It was getting easier to read the universe-mind, to start feeling the larger currents and eddies of thought and emotion that made up the healed strand. It was magnificent, really, an entire universe worth of people who had joined together to form something altogether wonderful and amazing. Ron knew that he would always remain Ron, but he would also become something… more. And it would be bodacious.

"OK," he thought back to the rest of the Chorlix. "Here goes nothing."

* * *

Kim was only a few paces away from the Chorlix when she stopped abruptly. She wasn't sure why, but she turned and looked at Ron lying forlornly on the ground. She felt an undeniable desire to hold his hand, just one more time. Leaving an impatient Shego behind, she ran back and knelt by Ron, and gently took his hand. Her palm rested next to his, and for an instant she felt a spark, an echo of their wetware links. But it couldn't be, of course.

"Kim…"

Eyes wide, she looked around, but the ghostly voice seemed to come from nowhere. The others watched her sympathetically – except Shego – but no one seemed to hear the voice.

"Kim… one last thing…" she could swear she heard Ron. "Hold up your hand." Feeling a little silly, she held her hand out, palm out. Without warning, images and foreign thoughts swirled through her wetware, momentarily taking over her entire processing capability. The palm holo projector twitched into focus, and a small disc coalesced in the air above her palm. It slowly took on more definition, turning blue with a design etched into it. Kim had no idea where this was coming from – her wetware was doing things she couldn't follow, even if she'd had a technical background. She was sure it was doing things it was never designed to do.

As abruptly as it had started, the wetware became quiescent and the holo switched off… but instead of disappearing, the disk thunked into Kim's palm, solid as a coin.

That wasn't supposed to be possible!

A gentle chuckle edged into her mind, and gave her further ghostly instructions. "Turn it sideways, press the design." She did so, and the disk began to expand, except for the cobalt blue color looking almost exactly like the portal that faux-Bonnie had opened to get them to this rabbit-hole of a place. It hung suspended a few inches above the ground, about two meters in diameter.

"What in the world is _that_?" Shego asked. Although hard to impress, she seemed somewhat subdued by this latest development.

Kim gave Shego a funny half-smile, cocked her head as if listening to something only she could hear, and abruptly grabbed Shego's arm. "Help me here!" She bent down and grabbed under Ron's shoulders, indicated the other woman should grab his feet.

Shego sighed. "If it gets us out of this extreme weirdness zone any faster, whatever." She effortlessly grabbed Ron's feet. "Now what?"

"And a one… and a two…" Kim chanted, swinging Ron's body just in front of the blue disc. Shego got it on the second swing.

"And a goodbye you!" she finished as they let go, watching Ron's body fly into the disc… and then watched it fly out the other side and land with a thump on the ground.

Kim walked over, knelt down, and looked puzzled. "I thought it would take care of him," she said. She straightened Ron out into a more dignified position, then reached up and touched the blue disc on the edge. It shrank to coin size again, and Kim pocketed it.

Shego looked at Ron. "So, you just gonna leave him there? I don't think it much matters, in this place." She gestured at the not-sky and strange ground. Not having wetware, she wasn't sure it wasn't supposed to do that. For all she knew, this was how you buried someone.

"No," she said, and turned. "It doesn't. Let's go."

"I think I've got a concussion," Kim heard behind her. Whirling, breath caught in her chest, she saw Ron sit up and grab his head. She was next to him, arms wrapped around his chest, in an instant.

"Ron!" laughing and crying at the same time, Kim couldn't decide if this was real or if she was cracking up. She'd take either, as long as Ron was in it.

Groaning, Ron pried himself slightly away from Kim's grasp. "I thought I said '_gently_ toss the body'," he said. "That was more like chucking coal." He looked up at Kim for the first time, and smiled. "But all is forgiven."

Yuma squatted down next to Ron and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Welcome back. Now would you like to explain?"

Ron saw that he was the center of attention, and squirmed a little at the stares. The calmness of the Chorlix remained, but he could tell it was fading – along with the incredible batch of knowledge he had. But he knew a tiny link would remain – to the rest of his consciousness that resided in that other universe. They didn't need to know about that quite yet.

"You didn't think being super advanced was all about pretty lights, did you?" He explained his experience, at how the Chorlix had given him the knowledge to connect to Kim and use her wetware to produce the blue coin. "It's kind of a portal thingy, but it has a couple of uses. The first was to copy my mind and life energy back into this sack of meat. But it has another purpose, too." He looked at Kim, who eyed him a little warily.

Ron stepped closer to her, took her gently in his arms, and put his mouth next to her ear. He whispered just loud enough for her to hear him. "I'm mortal."

She tensed, then pulled back and looked at him. "Will it work for… anyone else? And does that mean…?"

He grinned the biggest, goofiest grin he had in his inventory. At a loss for words, he just nodded his hands once. Kim stepped out of his grasp, and yelled "Whoopie!" at the top of her lungs. Then she planted the biggest kiss she could on Ron's face.

Still smiling, the two took hands. Ron looked at Yuma, and raised his voice. "Oh, and the Chorlix said to tell everyone – when the time is right, we'll all gather back here to move up the ladder." He looked directly at Kim. "All of us." Yuma smiled widely, her grin not as goofy as her adopted father's, but still big.

A basso rumble filled the air. Turning around, everyone watched strands of light part from the ground as the Chorlix rose into the not-sky. Soon it was just a pinpoint of light, then it was gone.

Tana strolled up to the teenagers. She looked confused. "Is that all?" She seemed to want Ron to tell her more, maybe the secrets of the universe or something. He just grinned at her, enjoying her discomfort.

"For now." He paused, then said, "Except – we kinda need to get home. If that's not too much to ask."

* * *

The goodbyes were mostly easy. Simple farewells and "Till we meet again" took care of most, but Ron had a hard time saying farewell to Yuma. They finally were able to disengage, Ron with the promise that he would definitely find a way of joining her at some point.

Finally, it was just Shego, Kim, Ron, and Bonnie left standing on the open plain under a missing sky. Bonnie had stayed in the background, but appeared miffed that somebody should know something she didn't. She eyed Ron with distaste, seeming to expect him to burst forth with monologues about the nature of the universe. When he acted exactly like his old self, she was even more indignant. Somebody who'd communed with the gods shouldn't fall on his butt when his girlfriend pushed him!

Kim snuggled against Ron's side while Bonnie once more drew her hands from above her head and produced a black portal. "So, your portal coin will turn us all normal mortals again, and we can finally grow up and have a family, right?" She wanted so much to hear him say those words.

"You got it. Just step through and boom – mortal and able to have kids. We're gonna get married!"

Kim laughed and hugged him tight. "Hey, you've got to ask me first. Don't make any assumptions there, Romeo." She kissed him on the cheek.

Ron did a double-take. "Seriously? I just kinda assumed… I mean, after all this time…" He seemed at a loss for words, worried that he'd offended her. Kim laughed harder.

Shego made a rude noise and put one leg through Bonnie's portal. "Oh man, some things just never change. I'm outta here." She disappeared into the black disc.

Bonnie made an impatient gesture. Ron looked at the circle, thinking of the uproar their return would generate. Within the month, he'd bet most of the immortals would be mortal again, and families would begin anew. He also had a feeling that, with the advanced medical and genetic treatment they had available, most of them – including Kim and Ron – would last to the next Singularity. The next step on the way up the ladder. On their way to the Chorlix, where a part of Ron still remained.

Holding hands, Kim and Ron stepped through the portal.

_**The End**_


End file.
